23ft Savage Bluefin

Age unknown but they were produced in the 1970s/80s era. Savage Bluefins are well respected as offshore fishing community. Purchased this hull in 2013 in a stripped out state. It has been an ongoing labor of love and many thousands of dollars spent. I would like to keep and enjoy her but no longer have the time to take her out.

The trailer and boat are both registered in NSW, and I did have it boat coded in NSW using the old numbers, but have misplaced the paperwork. The boat, trailer, outboard and all items on board are owned by me outright and there is no moneys owing or encumbrances. Since purchasing the hull I have replaced the floor from the cockpit back. After purchasing there had been a couple of soft spots in the aft area and port side lower transom area. I have removed the rotted sections of stringers back to sound original timbers, (the reason why I removed the old floor back to the cockpit so I could thoroughly inspect) and spliced new marine ply stringers in.

I also removed the old engine bearers as they were moist. I also cut out the entire transom core and have rebuilt the core substantially, indeed it is overbuilt. The lower transom is 4 sheets of 18mm marine ply thick, the upper third is two sheets thick. I have remodeled the stringer system to consist of 4 stringers that are each extended up onto the transom to give additional structural support. Each stringer is two 18mm sheets of marine ply sandwiched with a layer of epoxy and glass.

The stringers have been bonded to the floor with epoxy and high strength filler and laminated to the hull with epoxy resins and multi-directional fiberglass cloth. The reason I used the more expensive epoxy system is because I had no way of knowing what repairs or previous fiber glassing had been done, if epoxy had been used previously, other resins do not bond as well as epoxy to epoxy. So I stuck with epoxy to be on the safe side with all laminating work. Epoxy is also the most water resistant of the resins and has superior strength. Likewise each sheet of plywood in the transom has a layer of glass and epoxy resin between them.

It was quite a big long job. I have relined the cabin area and built new bench tops and cupboards inside the cabin with a new stainless sink and 12v faucet. Also new gunwale rubber has been applied around the edges of the hull. It is fitted with new electronics (large screen Garmin Chartplotter (GPSMAP 1020xs with down/side vu transducers, black box and networking. The outboard is hooked up to to display engine data on teh chart plotter also.

Has a fairly new electric anchor winch fitted Lewmar Profish 700 http://www.lewmar.com/node/11669 All lighting on the hull is LED including the marine spotlight, and nav lights. Has a near new VHF radio as well as a AM/FM radio with quality marine speakers. The AM/FM radio is having intermittent loss of power and I suspect a loose wire somewhere, haven't had time to troubleshoot. Has a manual/auto Rule bilge pump installed inside the pod. Dual battery setup.

All wiring throughout the hull is new. Fairly new carpet in cockpit floor area. The hull was originally a 21ft inboard design that previously had a diesel inboard, and was told the previous owners had difficulty getting it to plane with that configuration. I had an alloy pod professionally built to suit this hull and the 200hp Etec. The pod was built by a professional alloy boat builder in Brisbane area using a pod design he had already fitted to other Bluefin hulls.

It is bolted to the hull by multiple marine grade stainless threaded bar and marine grade Sikaflex. I have had it on the water and it comes up on the plane easily and cuts through the water nicely at a bit over 30kts at WOT. I was quite happy with it on water testing. The outboard is a 2005/2006 200hp HO Etec, basically a V6 EFI 2 stroke designed to give comparable economy to 4 strokes with more grunt. I purchased this motor secondhand form a dealer and it was like new condition with under 400hrs on it.

It sat on the stand for many months whilst I completed work on the hull. It passed all secondary inspections and testing by a local dealer prior to recommissioning, upon which it was given a thorough service and tuneup. It was running beautifully, unfortunately on its maiden voyage it had a mechanical failure for no known reason in number two cylinder. I took it back to the original dealer in Sydney as he is one of the best on Etecs, indeed he knows enough about them to rebuild them as race engines. It cost $7000 to do a full rebuild back to original specs using quality Wiseco pistons etc, in his opinion a better piston than the genuine item.

He is a well known boat racer and Etec outboard engineer. Since overhaul I have had it on the water twice, last rip was last year on the Hawkesbury to give it a nice run whilst running in. The old 19inch stainless prop was replaced with a new 4 blade stainless 17inch prop at overhaul. The boat comes with the other prop as a spare. So its only done a couple of hours on the water since overhaul and regularly started on the muffs with no error codes or issues.

Starts easy runs smoothly. Still in running in mode, I have checked it whilst running each time with BRP software which has shown no issues.The fuel tank was fabricated professionally just prior to recommissioning the motor and runs down the center of the floor, it holds around 180 ltrs or more. I also installed a brand new steering wheel and hydraulic steering system. The package is sitting on a dual axle trailer that I purchased new a couple of years ago, it has mechanical disc brakes to one axle, rated to around 2T. The trailer has only seen the water a couple of times and has traveled approximately 500kms.

The present forward controls that came with the motor are of the side mount version, there is a brand new control box and lever in the cabin ready to be fitted when desired. Although the present controls work fine I intended to change the model next service. Has the older round guages. Comes with adult and child life jackets and safety gear including EPIRB. Also as an extra bonus, have a brand new set of electric/hydraulic trim tabs to go with the boat, I have never fitted them but purchased new a couple of years ago.

I felt the hull handled ok without them. The new owner can decide whether to install or sell them. Asking $20000 ono many thousands of dollars invested in this hull with new parts. It still has some cosmetic stuff that needs doing such as reupholstering the original seats or replacing with new ones. All the hard and expensive work has been done, basically ready for the water.